 Floods in Uruguay send almost 6,000 fleeing homes Montevideo (AFP) June 12, 2017 - Flooding in South America has forced almost 6,000 people to flee their homes along the Uruguay River, authorities said Monday. More than 5,700 people fled their homes in Uruguay along the major waterway, as well as along some creeks flowing into it, since flooding started on May 26, according to officials in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. The bulk of those affected are in Salto department, a mostly rural area, as well as neighboring areas Artigas, Paysandu and Rio Negro, all on the country's western edge, the National Emergency System said. Flooding has grown increasingly common in Uruguay. And authorities fret that poor people often live close to rivers and streams for convenience -- only for the choice to cost them their lives.
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Heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 35 people in southeast Bangladesh, most of them buried under landslides, authorities said Tuesday.
Police warned that the death toll would likely rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the affected area, where telephone and transport links had been cut.
"The recovery work is still going on," the head of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed told AFP.
Most of the deaths occurred in two districts, Rangamati and Bandarban, which the meteorological office said had been pounded by heavy rains since early Monday.
Bazlur Rashid, a weather official, told AFP Rangamati had been pounded by 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of rain on Monday.
"It is still going on today," he said.
Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, a major port city, disrupting traffic movement for hours.
The latest disaster came after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.
One senior police officer said four soldiers were among the casualties in Rangamati, where a number of tribal communities have been waging a two decades-long insurgency.
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Storm destroys 1,000 refugee homes in Nigeria
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